I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 362 Dismounting Upon Hearing of Death, Xu Qing's Connections

Tianjin originally had six counties and one prefecture under its jurisdiction, the prefecture being Xiaocangzhou.

Later, Wanshou Township and Linshuifang were promoted to county seats, making it a total of eight counties and one prefecture. Among them, Linjiang County, under the governance of the talented Chen Guangrui, became the number one county under the jurisdiction of Tianjin in just ten years.

In the first year of Yong'an, Emperor Da Yan ascended the throne and promoted Chen Guangrui to the position of Prefect of Tianjin just over two days later. Now, two years later, Tianjin Prefecture is well-governed and harmonious, and is showing a strong trend of becoming the number one prefecture in the country.

After the sacrificial ceremony, Zhu Huai'an intentionally or unintentionally revealed his desire for Chen Guangrui to leave Tianjin and go elsewhere to govern a local area.

“You are a capable minister who can govern a peaceful world. Tianjin is now a place of good governance and harmony. If you were to go elsewhere, I believe you could create a second Tianjin.”

However, Chen Guangrui shook his head upon hearing this and said, "The prosperity of Tianjin today is not due to my efforts alone, but is the result of the hard work of the people under my jurisdiction. The people here are passionate and all industries are thriving. I have been here for more than ten years and know its intricacies well. If I were to go elsewhere, I might not achieve such results."

Chen Guangrui was also very confused. Over the past twenty years, Tianjin had given him a completely different feeling from other places. He always felt that there was an invisible force influencing Tianjin.

Otherwise, how could this prefecture have enjoyed favorable weather and abundant harvests for twenty consecutive years, with even the number of bandits and injustices decreasing year by year?

After the memorial service, the funeral shop owner he knew lamented to him that the funeral business was not doing well, and that fewer and fewer people were being beheaded in Tianjin in recent years. He also expressed his hope that he could take in more death row inmates from other places and execute them in Tianjin.

This can be seen as a way to indirectly boost the industrial development of Tianjin and increase the city's profile.
Regardless of the truth, Chen Guangrui was keenly aware of the differences between Tianjin and other places.

It is certainly a good thing that the emperor has expectations of him, but he must also recognize the current situation and lower the other party's expectations in time. Only in this way can he achieve steady progress.

Jinmenfu, Rongsheng Teahouse.

Today, Xu Qing, the head of the funeral parlors, booked an entire teahouse, just to take advantage of this memorial service to hold a funeral parlor exchange meeting with the funeral parlor managers from various prefectures and counties in Tianjin.

Previously, these people mostly acted as intermediaries for employees of the Linjiang County Pole Factory. Most of them had never even met Xu Qing, but that did not prevent them from admiring Xu Qing from the bottom of their hearts.

There is no one like him in the entire world, not even in the past. He is someone who can oversee the entire funeral industry in Tianjin and bypass the Ministry of Rites and the Court of State Ceremonies to be in charge of an entire royal sacrificial ceremony.

Xu Qing has become the undisputed head of the household in the eyes of everyone present. With the honor of hosting the "imperial funeral", as long as the Great Yan Dynasty still exists, everyone in Tianjin who makes a living from funerals should thank Manager Xu!
Just like today, with the sacrificial expenses of three thousand taels, each of the eight pallbearers present received no less than two hundred taels as payment.

No one present knew how Manager Xu had managed to reduce the cost of a royal sacrificial ceremony to less than 1,500 taels of silver.

The ritual implements, clothing, and various items used in the sacrifices, even if they weren't worth ten thousand taels of silver, shouldn't have been acquired for just over a thousand taels.

Only Xu Qing knew that those so-called costumes and props were souvenirs he had collected from visiting famous scenic spots such as the Dayong Imperial Mausoleum, the Ghost King's Mausoleum, and the Yin Corpse Sect.

These items are not commonly used in funerals, but they are perfect for royal sacrifices.

After deducting these unnecessary major expenses, what remains is the least valuable human resource cost.

Even so, Xu Qing still paid all those who helped with the sacrificial ceremony at a rate ten times higher than usual.

At this point, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call Xu Qing the most conscientious boss in Tianjin.

After the sacrificial ceremony, Liu Su'e, who was in charge of the family's finances, tapped on her abacus and discovered that her family had made a profit of one thousand taels.

Although Xu Qing had anticipated this, he did not expect that the expenses for the sacrifice could be reduced to this extent.

It should be noted that even with the cost of those ritual objects and sacrificial offerings, the total cost would not exceed ten thousand taels of silver.

But before Zhu Huai'an found him, the expenses audited by the Ministry of Rites and the Celestial Master's Mansion amounted to at least 100,000 taels of silver!
Where did those 90,000 taels go? It's really a mystery.

Xu Qing didn't care about matters of the court. Let alone 100,000 taels, even a million taels wouldn't concern him much.

However, since he has come to the task of organizing the royal sacrifice by chance, he should accept this enormous wealth, shouldn't he?
Therefore, after the staff meeting of Rongsheng Teahouse, a new advertisement appeared in the streets and alleys of Tianjin, proclaiming "Xu Family Funeral Services in Tianjin: 300 silver dollars to handle matters worth 10,000 taels of silver".

People from Tianjin love excitement and also love to gossip.

When everyone inquired, it wasn't long before they all knew that the funeral industry in Tianjin had managed to cover the Ministry of Rites' claim of 100,000 taels of silver with an expenditure of only 3,000 taels!
Now Tianjin has become famous, and the reputation of Tianjin's funeral industry has spread as well.

Anyway, I don't know who spread the story, but there was a saying five dynasties ago: "One must dismount to smell the fragrance, and the fragrance will travel ten miles when the jar is opened." When Emperor Longping's father went to the south of the Yangtze River, he also wrote a plaque for people that read "Dismount to smell the fragrance."

Nowadays, however, a joke is circulating in Tianjin: "Upon hearing of a funeral, one must dismount, and the state will save 100,000 taels of silver."

What is a joke to ordinary people is a thorn in the side to some, and they find it completely uninteresting.

Inside Deshengmen Gate in Beijing, at the Ministry of Rites.

Li Weijian, the Minister of Rites, who was known as the "Grand Minister of Rites," was secretly furious.

Is 100,000 taels a lot?

Li Weijian served as an official in the Ministry of Rites during the previous dynasty. If we follow the tradition of extortion and bribery in previous dynasties, the amount of money involved in various personnel exchanges would be more than 100,000 taels, even 500,000 taels would not be enough!

Now, considering that the current emperor is the founding monarch and has a strong hand, he made several concessions and finally settled on the amount of 100,000 taels with the approval of the Celestial Master's Mansion.

But His Majesty did something quite different. He turned around and went to Tianjin, found a funeral home in the countryside, and managed to get a 100,000 tael deal done for only 3,000 taels of silver!

Where does this leave the Ministry of Rites and the Celestial Master's Mansion in terms of face?

Now look what's happened. Not only has the nearly 100,000 taels of profit vanished, but more importantly, how dare the other party, a mere commoner and a lowly funeral worker in Tianjin, take the lead in tearing off their fig leaf?

Li Weijian was extremely frustrated.

"The dignity of a hundred thousand taels has been made a joke by your three thousand taels. Where is the face of the Ministry of Rites?"

In Li Weijian's eyes, the funeral director was just lucky to have caught the emperor's eye and thus had the opportunity to undertake royal sacrifices. Unfortunately, the man didn't understand his own position. Not only did he not inform him beforehand, but he also offended the Ministry of Rites.

"If this trend continues, who will respect the Ministry of Rites in the future? If we don't punish you, how can we uphold discipline?"

No sooner had Zhu Huai'an returned to the capital than Li Weijian began to have people collect evidence of Xu Qing's wrongdoings during the sacrificial ceremony.

However, the sacrificial rites performed by Xu Qing seemed to be even more professional than those performed by the Ministry of Rites.

He investigated and investigated, but he couldn't find many major oversights, let alone minor mistakes. Even if he did find some, they were all trivial and insignificant, not worth mentioning, and not enough to convict him.

But none of that matters. If you want to, you can easily fabricate a whole bunch of evidence.

Li Weijian has been in officialdom for decades, from the previous dynasty to the present. Is he afraid that he can't deal with a nobody like you?
Li Weijian immediately instructed his confidants to have a senior official from the Ministry of Rites take the lead and, together with several subordinate officials from the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Buddhist and Taoist Affairs, and the Court of State Ceremonial, begin to gather evidence against Xu Qing.

Check if any of the monks, nuns, or Taoist priests chanting the scriptures have violated the precepts. If so, it means Xu Qing made an improper choice of people and disrespected the great sacrifice.

Furthermore, which of the coffin bearers in the pallbearer's quarters doesn't have a past offense? Find one or two with a criminal record, and they'll say that Xu Qing is poor at hiring and has ulterior motives.

These are all minor matters; the bigger ones are yet to come. The most important thing in sacrificial rites is the funeral rites.

As the Minister of Rites, Li Weijian was very familiar with this matter!

From framing a thief in Tianjin for stealing sacrificial offerings and utensils to serious offenses like disrespectful worship, such as offering a pig's head as a sacrifice.
The character 豚 means pig. The late emperor's surname was Zhu, and the current emperor's surname is also Zhu. Isn't this a blatant curse against the current emperor and a great disrespect to Emperor Hongren Zuzhao?

With this crime, even ten heads wouldn't be enough to behead him.

Did Xu Qing really offer pork during the sacrificial ceremony?
Of course not!

Although the traditional sacrificial offerings of three animals have always been cattle, sheep, and pigs, Xu Qing changed the pig offering to a crooked-necked phoenix to accommodate Zhu Huai'an.

Moreover, the chief eunuch Sun Mingli had specifically advised Xu Qing on this matter.

It's easy to find a pretext to accuse someone. The sacrificial rites have already been completed, and all the offerings have been removed. People insist that you offered pork. What evidence do you have to prove that you didn't?
Officials have two mouths; they can turn black into white and do whatever they want!

Even so, Li Weijian did not give up.

According to the laws of Da Yan, if the above crimes are proven, the most he could receive is caning or imprisonment, which is hardly enough to vent his anger.
Li Weijian's killer move was yet to come.

This deadly move was the evidence that Li Weijian believed he had Xu Qing's lifeline—stealing the Great Sacrifice.

The sacrifice to Emperor Zhao was the most solemn ceremony of the dynasty. After the ceremony, the divine objects and sacrificial offerings placed on the altar were collected and kept by officials of the Ministry of Rites in accordance with regulations. This was an official procedure and was legal and compliant.

However, you, a funeral service without official authority, took back the sacrificial offerings and offerings. This is the grave crime of stealing offerings!
Although Emperor Yong'an was the Son of Heaven, he still had to follow the rules of etiquette and ancestral regulations.

These offenses are all within the bounds of propriety and law, and as long as no one investigates them thoroughly, they will not cause any harm.

However, upon closer examination, it is found to be irregular in every aspect.

Emperor Zhu reigned for only three years. Li Weijian was unsure of the emperor's temperament, so to ensure his safety, he did not personally intervene.

Instead, he secretly ordered the Ministry of Rites to collect evidence of Xu Qing's crimes, and also ordered the Buddhist and Taoist Affairs Department and the funeral officiant in charge of funerals and sacrifices in the Ministry to issue judgment documents as evidence, thereby confirming Xu Qing's crimes.

If the charge of disrespecting the sacrifice is established, Xu Qing will inevitably be exiled three thousand miles away to Ningguta to serve as a slave.

If the charge of stealing from the grand ceremony is established, the person in charge will be hanged, and all those involved in the ceremony, including the monks, nuns, and Taoist priests, will be flogged fifty times each.

However, although the Ministry of Rites was in charge of etiquette, it had no power to convict.

But this did not stump Li Weijian, who was deeply influenced by Emperors Longping and Jingxing.

You can always trust the ability of officials in Dayong to stage accidents for extortion.

Minister Li believed that officials would protect each other, and that he could simply have his subordinates transfer the charges to the Ministry of Justice and the Censorate as a formality to settle the matter.

But Li Weijian never expected that before the Ministry of Rites could finalize the charges against Xu Qing, a storm was already brewing in the court.

This morning at the Imperial Court, in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

No sooner had Sun Mingli finished shouting, "If you have something to report, do so now; if not, leave the court," than Wu Zhiyuan, the Duke of Wencheng, who was ranked first among the civil officials, submitted a memorial impeaching him.

The charges against Li Weijian, the Minister of Rites, included several counts of crimes such as jealousy of the virtuous and capable, framing loyal officials, abusing his power, and extorting money for sacrificial rites.

Just as Wu Zhiyuan finished submitting his memorial, another high-ranking official, a Vice Minister of State Affairs with the title of Earl of Jingcheng, risked being accused of forming cliques and engaging in favoritism by submitting his memorials to the Vice Minister of Rites and the Minister of the Court of State Ceremonies.

Wu Wencai remained neither humble nor arrogant. According to the ways of officialdom, he, who was from the same faction as Wu Zhiyuan, should not have shown up at this time.

But the Ministry of Rites and the Court of State Ceremonial were trying to harm Xu Qing, and he couldn't tolerate that!
Li Weijian felt dizzy; he had never expected this outcome.
He's just an ordinary citizen, it's such a trivial matter, how could it attract two high-ranking cabinet ministers to impeach him?

Li Weijian was flustered, but he forced himself to remain calm.

In Tianjin, he was acting in accordance with regulations, and the people handling the matter were officials from the Ministry of Rites and the Court of State Ceremonial. Even if things really escalated, there would be people to defend him.
Even if we consider the worst-case scenario, at most a few funeral officials and assistant ministers would be dismissed and that would be the end of it; the fire would never reach him.

However, just as Li Weijian stepped forward, before he could even finish thinking, he saw the Marquis of Dingyuan, who had made great contributions to the founding of the dynasty, stride out of the hall and stand in the center.

Marquis Dingyuan, Wang Liang, pointed the finger at Li Weijian and said, "Your Majesty, Li Weijian is in charge of the Ministry of Rites and presides over sacrificial rites. He often asks for 100,000 taels of silver! But the manager of the funeral shop in Tianjin only spent 3,000 taels to handle the matter properly and satisfactorily."

"I would like to ask Minister Li, how did the Ministry of Rites determine the amount of 100,000 taels of silver?"

Zhu Huai'an understood what Wang Liang and the others were thinking. He said in a deep voice, "Minister Li, I thought that your name contained the characters for frugality, so I disregarded the past and allowed you to continue to manage the Ministry of Rites. Is this how you repay me?"

Li Weijian's face turned ashen, and he immediately knelt before the hall and said:
"Your Majesty, I am guilty! I am but a lowly and insignificant person, yet I have been fortunate enough to receive Your Majesty's boundless grace and be entrusted with such an important task. However, I have neglected my duties and failed to share Your Majesty's burdens, a crime deserving of ten thousand deaths!"

Li Weijian wept bitterly and said, "A person as derelict in his duty and incompetent as me should be punished according to the law to appease the world."

"."

Zhu Huai'an looked at Li Weijian, who was well-versed in the ways of officialdom, his eyes flickering with uncertainty.

Li Weijian was among the first batch of officials from the previous dynasty to voluntarily surrender to the new dynasty. Although he had long hated such parasites on the country, he could not deal with them arbitrarily for the sake of the stability of the dynasty.

Now that the other party has taken the initiative to admit their guilt, it has given him a pretext to reorganize the Ministry of Rites.

After a moment's thought, Zhu Huai'an immediately issued a decree: "Li Weijian, you hold a high position, yet you do not think of serving the emperor and the country. Instead, you abuse your power for personal gain and make excessive demands. Furthermore, you are jealous of the virtuous and capable and frame innocent people."

"Such conduct makes you unfit to be the head of a ministry. You are hereby immediately dismissed from your post as Minister of Rites and demoted three ranks."

Zhu Huai'an pondered for a moment, then continued, "I will consider your past achievements and temporarily appoint you as the Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, to observe your future performance."

"As for the rest of the Ministry of Rites, they shall be thoroughly investigated by the Three Departments and punished according to the law!"

The position of Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices is a sinecure, and while it may seem like a great favor from the Emperor, it has in fact ruined Li Weijian's future.

The people in the court kept their eyes down and didn't voice any objections. Everyone present was a shrewd and intelligent person, and none of them wanted to risk being disrespected at this moment.

However, the courtiers in the palace remembered one person's name.

A funeral director from Tianjin Prefecture was able to get the Duke of Wencheng and the Marquis of Dingyuan to protect him, and the man was even the one the Emperor had specifically named to preside over the sacrificial ceremony for Emperor Hongren Zuzhao.
Can such a person be an ordinary, humble citizen?
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away.

Completely unaware of the changes in the court, Xu Qing had already packed his bags and arrived in Quyang County with a fox and a cat. As for what was happening in the capital, Xu was completely unaware.

However, given his indifferent nature towards fame and fortune, even if he knew, he would probably just laugh it off.

(End of this chapter)